Manchester United, Tottenham and Chelsea All Ready For Big Signings

Pre-season has clearly been a frustrating time for Mourinho, while a perceived lack of respect for leading his side to second spot last term has got under his skin.

Shearer said: It has been a long time since anyone won back-to-back titles but I think City will win the Premier League again because of Pep - he won't want their standards slipping. We spoke to Kompany and Walker and they seem so intent to not drop below the mentality and standards they achieved past year.

"I will focus on the players that are available, so I am not even thinking about that list of injured players I gave you, (Nemanja) Matic, (Antonio) Valencia and so on".

"The challenge for them is can they repeat that level of energy and that level of focus every three days?, but they are a challenge this year, Liverpool".

I think it'll be tough but if they were to go of the Champions League and they had free weeks after Christmas, Saturday-to-Saturday they could be a real threat this season to City.

Ivan Perisic, the Croatia worldwide, also featured prominently on Mourinho's wish list but it now seems that United's summer transfer business will be restricted to the arrivals of Fred, the injured Diogo Dalot and Lee Grant, signed from Stoke City as a third-choice goalkeeper.

The loophole allowing clubs to bring in new players all stems from the fact that there are different transfer windows for loan deals.

Brazil global Fred is the only player to have come in that is set to challenge for an instant starting berth , with Diogo Dalot and Lee Grant merely squad options for the present and future. That's an obscene amount of talent.

"The players with a proper pre-season are fit and they are strong".

Mourinho said it was "time to stop thinking about the market" and, unless there is a dramatic change throughout the day, that means United will be trying to win their first Premier League title since Sir Alex Ferguson's final season without the new centre-half that the manager had identified as a priority.